User:Pleun/grad/Article1
– Victor Klemperer, The Language of the Third Reich: LTI—Lingua Tertii Imperii: A Philologist’s Notebook, trans. Martin Brady (London: Bloomsbury, 2013 (1957)), 11, 15.
Contemporary fascism, misogyny, and extreme right ideologies are cultivated in online forums collaboratively. Alt-Right and Leftists ideology is framed with terminology found in nihilist meta-memes and forum-posts which are rapidly evolving and duplicating. The online enthusiasts are creating an impassable forest where normies (translation: "normal", mainstream people) will easily get lost. Right conservatism and left-wing socialism are reformed with new styles of media-usage, propaganda, and focus of ideology. The Alt-Right is reappropriating everything from entire subcultures to transgression formerly part of the socialist left strategy, is bullying their way to domination and is coining term after term to shape their moral bible.
Three main groups can be distinguished in these online culture wars. On the right: (1) The Alt-Right and (2) the Manosphere (who could be described as a part of the Alt-Right), and on the left with less specific terminology: (3) The Social Justice Warriors / Tumblr Feminists / Gender Politics Activists. The right-wing side is currently determining the discourse in both online and offline politics.
This might be a quite bold statement, but if you look at the political climate in most western countries the Right has been (re-)gaining a significant amount of influence over the last years. In online environments, the Right has been determining the discourse in a quite literal sense by coining the terms describing the new Left (Social Justice Warrior or in short SJW, for instance) and their cause as well as their own. They have an advantage in any argument by being anti-PC, nihilistic and ironic. This mystifies there words in such way Rightists can turn any argument. Meanwhile, the Left is digging their own politically correct grave. There is nothing less than a witch hunt going on to take down anyone who isn't 100% PC (politically correct), demanding everyone to "Check Their Privilege". This version of the Left is fighting against terms, not creating them.
Slavoj Zizek on Political Correctness, Slavoj Zizek on how Political Correctness elected Donald Drumpf
– Angela Nagle. “Kill All Normies: Online Culture Wars From 4Chan and Tumblr to Drumpf and the Alt-Right.”
Although the Right is gaining influence in political discourse, the Left is gaining it within mainstream media, with successes like #MeToo and the continued debate about gender. The Right responded by declaring war on media itself. Donald Drumpf himself demonized the media frequently during his 2016 campaign and continues to do so in his presidency.
I want to to give a quick note on that I will refer to the Right in the rest of this proposal as both containing the Alt-Right and the Manosphere groups as they are both opposing the new feminist, politically correct Left. The Alt Right is politically active, while the Manosphere not yet. Both fear the decline of western civilization, the Manosphere through feminism and the Alt-Right through the mixture with foreign people with other cultures. Both are interested in strategically fighting for conserving and enhancing what in their view are the pillars and morals of western civilization.
If the right-wing side is not only determining the discourse but also winning the argument at the moment, it is of importance to look at why they do and how they shape their ideology. I believe the jargon created by the Alt-Right is not only the center of their ideology but also deliberately used to form an inclusive group that mystifies outsiders. I want to give a few examples of this jargon to show you what kind of terms are used and how vastly it is interwoven with their vocabulary.
Every key point in their ideology is mirrored in their vocabulary. These words they coin frame their reality and convince and pull in new members. The way they view their "enemies", themselves and society could be understood by looking at this jargon. They even have a term for people who believe in their version of reality and the people who don't (see example 2), therefore being aware their version differs from the mainstream. I want to give a quick insight in their world by giving two examples of jargon words, and one example of a paragraph full of jargon written on a popular forum that I will translate into normie-English (mainstream English). I will use the forum the Red Pill, used by the Manosphere, a group of men who believe feminism will ultimately cause the decline of western civilization. Their focus is regaining their power on "The Sexual Marketplace" to restore conservative pre-feminist order.
I think there are only two ways that would have any effect on the growth and influence of this group:
- Firstly, ignoring and therefore starving out the ideology by most media. The ideology will never reach mainstream attention and will only contain a small group with a relatively small impact. The problem with this first method of imploding is it's an act by non-act. I think we are already, especially since events like the protest in Charlottesville where the online war was fought offline, past this option. The rise of an underlying growing discontent within general population that in most extreme forms is expressed within this ideology (and in a watered-down, broader and most influential extend in the election of Donald J. Drumpf as the latest American president) will not only still exist, but probably find other extreme expressions.
- The second way would be to demand constant demystification and clarification. The ironic and nihilistic memes and jargon function as a smokescreen not only between those who affiliate themselves with this group but also between them and outsiders. It is hard to distinguish those sincere and those only trolling and there for the "lulz".